tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61562576681903555302018-05-28T21:08:43.976-07:00Needs More SaltFor consumption, not approval.Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03734943814412678082noreply@blogger.comBlogger84125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6156257668190355530.post-25891908458433269512016-01-10T23:54:00.004-08:002016-01-10T23:54:42.583-08:00The RPG is dead.<br /><div class="MsoNormal">Well I would actually argue that it died a long time ago, but the genre still thrives. It’s not that the role playing game is not relevant or popular, but the core tenants of what made those games unique have been absorbed by other video game genres.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">The classic video game RPG was typically about the growth of a character, piloted by the player through the story. These stories involved trials and puzzles that the player overcame, and was rewarded with gear, new abilities, and more tools to deal with future challenges. These games were about some journey, whether that be saving the princess, righting some wrong, or progressing through a narrative arc.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">There was a linear progression not only for teaching the player the systems of the game, but also give the player options and open up more strategies to play with. The increase in player power also mirrored the character progression of the protagonist, in something similar to the classic Heroes Journey trope. I want to make a clear distinction between the player and the main character in that they are not the same.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">This is how I would bound what an RPG is: starting a player with simple toolset, and giving them different tools and powers in order to guide them through a journey of some sort. In addition to the classic RPG, there were a lot of other games that also had similar bounded definitions: FPS, RTS, Sims, Sports, Platformers, Action etc. All of these genres learned and built upon what worked and didn’t work from the games that came before.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Then things got a little weird. Sometime in the 2000s a lot of cross pollenization started happening between platforms, and the various game styles borrowed elements from each other. Focusing on RPGs in particular, I think these elements got cannibalized by other genres.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">When I say that the RPG is dead, what I mean is that modern RPGs are not recognizable or distinct as they once were, because so many games borrow the linear player progression elements to simulate <u>player</u> skill increases instead of the progression of a main character; in fact most games where these systems are present don’t have a protagonist but telegraph that the player themselves are getting more powerful.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">The RPG system also is a double edged sword when the story that is being told feels drawn out or impotent. I realize that a story needs to have high and low points, but it needs to keep the player engaged, or present the player with interesting and varied challenges. The Witcher 3 was guilty of not providing the player with interesting story beats, in conjunction with burying a significant amount of player progression with its main story line; I simply stopped playing while trying to find that Dandelion git. Games like Mass Effect provide a healthy balance of variation as well as interesting story to propel the player through the experience.&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">As an aside, a lot of the story telling in large modern video games is kinda bullshit, and not especially interesting. I think if you want to find some interesting ideas to chew on, smaller indie games are telling much better stories.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Most big releases, and mobile games of every kind have this built in and are balanced around this telegraphed progression and become an exercise in moving the goalposts. Focusing these progression schedules on the player instead of the character, also means more when games get measured in real time instead of game time. This is where the MMORPG gets a lot of its’ power.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">I keep beating my drum for games like Spelunky and Dark Souls series in that people can and do regularly beat those games with the barest of toolsets, and by playing them your ACTUAL skill at the game is increasing rather than the game ramping you up on a reward schedule. Player mastery is real and valuable thing that the modern RPG is missing; though these games are generally about telling a story rather than pose a challenge for the player.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Anyways. RPGs suck because every game is now an RPG.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div>Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03734943814412678082noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6156257668190355530.post-7481221627134727902015-07-18T09:41:00.002-07:002015-07-18T09:41:44.473-07:00TransitionThis post is very much me working something out on paper. Enjoy the ride.<br /><br />Some of this post will come from a lot of thought I had while at my cousin's wedding, and that side of the family is very catholic and religious. Some of this post will come from having a television always on when I'm at work, and typically this TV will be tuned into some 24 hour news network or something.<br /><br />We are starting to get candidates for the future leader of this country, and all of them bring an agenda and a viewpoint with them. Typically the republicans want money, and democrats want social change. These are opposed ideologies, and they are often incompatible; one represents private wealth, and one represents public wealth.<br /><br />During the trip to the wedding, we all listened to the WTF podcast where the host interviewed Obama. If you haven't listened to it, it's very good. During the interview, Obama was remarking that he would do a lot of talking to people, and that it's incredibly easy for people to connect on a personal level, but once the political card was drawn, the polarizing effect of politics took immediate effect and a gap was created.<br /><br />Like I mentioned, that side of the family for the wedding is very Catholic, and they categorize themselves as conservatives. Surprise, but I am not Catholic, and I just let my family bash the president as everything wrong with the country was just his fault anyways. While there are a few family members that I really enjoy visiting and chatting up, I'm not part of that group of people, and I think it just boils down to how we perceive the world differently.<br /><br />Part of the christian belief is that God created the universe, and ultimately your prosperity stems from faith in him. He is the alpha and the omega, and will shape the world according to his wishes, and that your actions and inaction are his will. I've never really been comfortable with this thought. While this thought may have been easy to believe at certain points in history, those belief structures seem like antiquities now. Mankind has become the dominant force on this planet and is much different from the nascent, more fragile group than it once was.<br /><br />I started thinking about this in terms of a specific example, climate change. This sounds like something that would be trivial for God to do something about. He did create the world after all. Yet there are lots of people who see things happening around them that would suggest that God is not doing anything about the systems of the Earth changing, and mankind must be the force to make these changes so that our planet remains habitable for as long as possible.<br /><br />So through all this thought experimenting, I came to some conclusions, just in general terms.<br />- Conservatives/republicans are focused on privatizing wealth because of their belief that macro scale things are outside of their control, so driving towards a world where the individual can prosper makes the most sense.<br />- Liberals/democrats do believe that their actions can change the course of mankind, and that the rising tide raises all boats, and increasing the happiness and opportunity for all people has multiplicative effects for mankind as a whole.<br /><br />Ultimately these are just labels, and are just used to screen out the oil to your water. I still have no idea why the two oppose each other so strongly.<br /><br />One last wrinkle to add to this comes from this Planet Money podcast on why people commit fraud:<br /><a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/07/03/419543470/episode-363-why-people-do-bad-things">http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/07/03/419543470/episode-363-why-people-do-bad-things</a><br /><br />They talk about that it's just difficult for people to weigh the pros and cons of questionable decisions, when the outcomes will profoundly impact the people around them in comparison to unknown results of a large system. Housing fraud was common during the sub prime mortgage crisis, because people individually disassociated themselves from the economic system as a whole. I think parallels can be drawn between this and climate change.<br /><br />My own personal slant in all this is that humans are beginning to understand their impacts on the world, and on human ecosystem more and more everyday. Our awareness is expanding both outward in terms of the limitations of who we can be as a whole, and inwards as the ease of communication between individuals grows. I'm hopeful that we become more mindful of our actions, and not leave it to chance the negative consequences of our actions.<br /><br />I think a focus on just one of personal or public liberties is foolish, but a compromise between the two is the ideal. Humans have a strange need to belong yet be distinguished, and it's a strange balance that we are always fighting to maintain.<br /><br />Long post is long.<br /><br />Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03734943814412678082noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6156257668190355530.post-28722221832915600752015-05-11T01:24:00.001-07:002015-05-11T01:24:12.925-07:00Where raiding broke.<div class="MsoNormal">It’s been over a year since I’ve played the raiding game, yet it’s something that I still think about after doing it for a better part of my 20s. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">When I first discovered raiding, it was like I had discovered some sort of fight club. Here were people that were super passionate about a hidden slice of the game, and it was something I could get initiated into with nerds like myself.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">The grind within the game justified my focus on the raiding content, because at the time it seemed like the desert you earn for eating your vegetables. Cutting my teeth raiding in Burning Crusade meant that if you were in a raiding guild, or knew someone who raided, you could instantly assume some things about their skill, and familiarity with the game. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">At one point, raiding was the pinnacle of content in World of Warcraft, and now I see it as a rote. Stratifying the difficulty and the rewards have made those the focus of raiding instead of the historical high quality of the content. Raiding tumbled to the least common denominator in what seems like a blink of an eye in Warlords of Draenor. In all honesty, raiding has had no major creativity breathed into it for a long while. To me it seems like it has been optimized to death. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">I have no idea why I’m even thinking about it still. It’s holds a weird sense of nostalgia for me, but it’s for something that exists so transformed from what I loved about it initially. It could be the caliber of player that the game focuses its attention on, or some other je ne sais quoi. I suppose some of it is the ease of success in the game now relying on diminishing returns of probability, compared to what felt like things that could be overcome by skill or creative thinking. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">It’s a situation of “you can never go home again” where I have grown as a person, and I have learned to set aside my toys as I discover myself and challenge myself with new things. A part of me &nbsp;just wishes that the game could have grown with me. World of Warcraft was at one point more than just a game, it was much more than the sum of its parts. Now it just feels like a convoluted caricature of itself, and instead of growing as a medium, it actually regressed into something lesser. <o:p></o:p></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal">I love you World of Warcraft. I hate you World of Warcraft.<o:p></o:p></div>Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03734943814412678082noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6156257668190355530.post-1689836623825727212015-04-23T00:36:00.001-07:002015-04-23T00:41:05.331-07:00House RulesI've been working on a card game rather intensely for the last few months and now I'm getting around to having a place for it on the internet. If anyone reads this check it out!<br /><br /><a href="http://erwil155167.sitebuilder.name.com/">http://erwil155167.sitebuilder.name.com/</a><br /><br />Cross posting this from the House Rules blog:<br /><br />Getting started with finally making a website for the game. Going to try to post my progress here.<br /><br />A few years ago, I made a new years resolution to get in shape, lose weight and to feel much better about myself in general by the start of the next year. In the end, I lost 60 lbs, got laser eye surgery, and improved the way I presented myself by leaps and bounds. Having a goal and a timeline really kept me going and was a big part of the success.<div><br />A year later, I needed another goal. Before falling into electrical engineering, as a kid and all the way through high school I wanted to work on video games. Every video game I ever played was an encapsulated experience and introduced the player into a new way of thinking, told a great story, or brought people together to compete and explore.<br /><br />I decided that my new goal was to create a game. <br /><br />Video games are my bread and butter, but I don't have any significant programming knowledge or skill. I actually quit a job because I just couldn't hack it as a programmer. I wracked my brain for ideas and played board game nights at a co-workers when I decided that a card game sounded the most fun. I thought up the rules, prototyped it with some bicycle cards, and even play tested it. Simple right? I had enough under my belt to say that yes, I made a game. It was a very rough alpha but the game was mine.<br /><br />This year, I decided that that wasn't enough. As I was working on the game, I learned about the Cards Against Humanity independent game design competition. I now had my timeline. I wanted to take it all the way, take it to a place where not only was it polished enough to give to strangers, but also look presentable as well and nice enough that a professional wouldn't second guess it. <br /><br />That was four months ago, where I started with sharpie on a poker deck, and now it's playable, printable and polished. It's a little mind boggling how far the game has come with testing, and sharing it with friends and strangers. It's weird, but as the project has evolved I'm growing more confident in it's existence. It's so validating to play it with a group of people for the first time and they tell me that it's really fun. <br /><br />Ultimately my plan is to keep polishing, and getting it ready to submit to the Tabletop Deathmatch (<a href="http://cardsagainsthumanity.com/deathmatch/)">http://cardsagainsthumanity.com/deathmatch/)</a> in addition to some other independent game competitions and reviewers. Hopefully at some point I can put together enough support to put it on Kickstarter and maybe sell it at some point. I'm not designing a game to get rich, but having something that you put time and effort into resonate with people is an extremely satisfying feeling.</div>Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03734943814412678082noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6156257668190355530.post-53885874597779204222014-12-31T13:46:00.000-08:002014-12-31T14:01:14.135-08:00Notable Games of 2014<br /><div class="MsoNormal">I am listening through the Giant Bomb game of the year awards at the moment. It’s pretty much my favorite time of the year, and I’m noticing that there were more lows than highs in 2014. I definitely felt it in my own experience with games. I want to do a top 10 list, but there weren’t a ton of standouts, however I do want to talk about a few.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><u>Spelunky:<o:p></o:p></u></div><div class="MsoNormal">The first comeback game that soaked up most of my time this year. Spelunky is probably the purest game experience you can get. Anyone can play Spelunky and it’s just you vs. the game; its risk and reward. I wouldn’t even call it a roguelike, because the tools at your disposal are pretty limited, and all in all not needed to be successful.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">I did not get it at first, as most people probably didn’t either. It’s a well-constructed onion, that each run, each death, peels back another layer until you get to the warm center; only then do you realize that the center is really another onion waiting to be explored. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">It’s a punishing experience, but each punishment is really just a lesson in disguise. The reason I dropped so many hours into this game is because I’m either just bad at video games, or there are just so many ways to die, I mean learn. The fact that you and you alone are responsible for your success or failure is freeing to me in the new age of in game upgrades, pay/play, and iterative game progression.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><u>Diablo 3:<o:p></o:p></u></div><div class="MsoNormal">Speaking of iterative game progression, this was another blindside that hit me this year in a big way. Diablo 3 was a big disappointment when it came out initially. The auction house may have been a good idea on paper, but it tainted the game experience and put a big glass window between you and the game experience. You could see the good loot, but it would always be out of your reach. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Reaper of Souls took everything great about the formula and dumped the rest. The loot mechanics got very interesting with different combinations of items, and some frankly overpowered weapons kept you thinking “Maybe just one more rift.” The reward progression may be formulaic, but Blizzard nailed it so that you could always experiment with different sets and skills to yield more loot, and faster runs.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">I’ve come to think that players optimize all the fun out of the games they play, but Diablo kept me guessing what gear or skills became more effective, and I was having fun the whole time.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><u>FTL: iPad:<o:p></o:p></u></div><div class="MsoNormal">I’m sensing a theme here. FTL is incredible. I started playing it back in 2012 when it came out for the PC. FTL is the first game I have ever played that was so good, the only way to stop playing it was to uninstall it. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Then they released a free expansion. I resisted.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Then they released it on iPad. I caved.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">The cycle began anew and I was up till 3 am playing it the first day I got it. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">The iPad version is definitely the best way to play it. I worked a lot of night shifts this summer and it was the perfect time to try to unlock every ship in the game. In doing so, you realize how deep the game is and how many different ways exist to play it. The only real complaint is, that the end boss is static and learning how to defeat him can be frustrating in that while there are many ways to play the game itself, there is only really one good way to defeating the huge wall of end boss that you run into. Still though, it’s rewarding every time you shoot down another ship be it big or small.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Oh, and the music is a treat. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><u>Dark Souls/Dark Souls2:<o:p></o:p></u></div><div class="MsoNormal">I came into the Dark Souls game a little late (sensing a theme here) and it was a game I was scared to play. I think it sat in my steam library for a few months before I booted it up. I was right to be afraid.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Dark Souls is unforgiving, and refreshing. There are very real consequences in the game and failure is punished severely. Things that are intuitive and seemingly straightforward are not explained in the slightest; it took me a bit to realize that more armor is not always the right choice. It’s your job to learn how the world works, while the world is trying to murder you at the same time. It literally is a world that is seamless and exploring is the best part.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Bosses are rough. You need to be on top of your game to beat them, and even then you will probably fail a lot before you get it right. There is a reason that people brag about getting through the game naked, or as quickly as possible. There is a reason that games like Dark Souls and Spelunky exist that don’t hold your hand in the slightest, to make you a better video game player. Dark Souls holds the trophy for being the first game to intice me into throwing a controller in frustration, and breaking my headset (now bandaged up with electrical tape).<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Dark Souls is a crucible that dedicated video game players should experience. The second one was not as impactful or good as the first, but is still a good game. It just suffers from sequel syndrome. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><u>Shovel Knight:<o:p></o:p></u></div><div class="MsoNormal">I’m basically a Mega Man 2 fanboy, so I was required to buy and play this game. It’s fantastic. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Unlike a lot of other retro throwback games, Shovel Knight knew what to keep retro and what to adopt from modern games (though very little). Like all retro games, it’s all about pattern recognition. When to dodge and when to strike. I feel like the developers just decided to make Dark Souls into an 8 bit game. Even the currency in the game has the same use it or lose it feel as the souls games. Where a lot of retro games feel kinda samey and interchangeable, Shovel Knight has a lot of personality and style and takes itself just seriously enough.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">The soundtrack makes me feel warm fuzzies all over. It does a great job at not being too chip tuney, while emulating instruments with growls and bleeps.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><u>Destiny</u>:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Destiny should have been game of the year this year.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Bungie did so many things right with this game and so many things wrong at the same time, and it barely averages out in the positive direction. The mere presence of this game affected the whole industry, and anyone who knows Bungie’s track record knew where to place their expectations. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Personal note: Bungie holds a special place in my heart. I have been playing their games from when they came on 3.5” diskettes. Pathways Into Darkness blew my mind at a time when Doom was the standard run and gun. Marathon was immersive and incredibly smart, and some of the best times of my youth were had blowing my family to bits with weapons from the future. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Halo was okay. Multiplayer matches with strangers are not my thing.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Destiny was Bungies foray back into immersive world experiences, and I knew what they were capable of. I was cautiously optimistic. The game sat on my PS3 for a couple days before I had the courage to boot it up. The campaign was adequate, but ultimately not enough. I played most missions on heroic before I just couldn’t keep up with the level difference between me and the enemies. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">It was not an immersive experience and I guess that’s the biggest letdown. There is a dissonance that exists in Destiny (and a lot games) where you are a special snowflake, but so is everyone else. It’s hard to deliver an immersive experience, when there are strangers in your game. Right now video games are in <spectacle intisifies=""> mode, and for me a world with all highs, and fidelity is crucial to pull me in. I would have felt a lot happier if you could opt in the leveling up process as a single player experience, and once you completed it, the end game opened up.<o:p></o:p></spectacle></div><div class="MsoNormal">Destiny does not do character progression well, and I realize how weak of an argument that sounds like to hold against the game. Your power level in the game comes down to pure, unforgiving math. If you are fighting a monster one level above you, you are at a severe disadvantage. In order to get more powerful, you need to grind. A lot. Sometimes grinding isn’t enough and you hope RNG is kind. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Where the loot game in Diablo felt right (slow and steady, very granular upgrades), Destiny gets it wrong packing so much weight behind your light score, almost to a quantum level. Where Diablo had essentially the same grind, it felt much more varied based on what kinds of elites you were up against, and a new set of randomly generated levels and enemies. Every single time you run each mission or strike in Destiny it is pretty much a carbon copy of the last time you ran it, and it gets old after the 2<sup>nd</sup> or 3<sup>rd</sup>time. Once you level up, congrats! Here is a new set of the exact same scenarios to run, but now your numbers match theirs!<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">The raid was good, but was misplaced. It could have been introduced at a much lower light requirement. I didn’t think the raid was heads and shoulders above the rest of the content of the game, and it certainly didn’t justify sinking as much time as Bungie expected you to in order to prepare for it. The weekly nightfall strikes are my favorite part of the game, as at least there is some variation in terms of which weapons are most effective that week. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Recently my biggest complaint in the game is that getting new loot is not fun. Once you level up your gear to maximum, any new piece of loot is just a distraction. Leveling up a new gun or armor is easily a 6 hour investment, and frankly that is way too much for Bungie to ask of its players. I got a new gun from a nightfall strike and let out an audible sigh, because fuck if I don’t care at all about doing identical content again and again to make a bar go up. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">I played a lot of Destiny (and I still might), but unless one of my friends wants an extra gun for a raid or nightfall, I can’t be bothered to turn it on. Any more progression in this game feels like a step backwards.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><u>Still playing/looking forward to:<o:p></o:p></u></div><div class="MsoNormal">Crypt of the Necrodancer – My first dipping of my toe into early access games, but so far this gem is great. I’m a sucker for sountracks. This game is evolving splendidly. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Shadow of Mordor – Okay people, I hear this game is good.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Bayonetta 2 -&nbsp; I didn’t play the first one cause the main character seemed to be aimed at depressed otaku, but I hear the second is really good, and the scale and spectacle are great. I need this to be a super dumb fun game.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Tomb Raider – Heard good things about this one.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Lots of Indie Games – My cup hath overflow because of Steam<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">A Unicorn – I am sure there will be some game/genre that I detest fall into my lap and be the best thing I ever had.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><u>Not going to play:<o:p></o:p></u></div><div class="MsoNormal">Dragon Age Inquisition – Doesn’t grab me. Skyrim was great, and so was Mass Effect. This sounds like a mashup I want to avoid.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Destiny – Maybe it will get the Diablo treatment eventually. Until then.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">World of Warcraft – It’s just too much. Everything in that game is a known quantity, and the barrel was scraped a couple expansions ago. Now it’s just a vanity vehicle. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">AAA games in general – I feel like EA/Ubisoft/Square/etc have gotten away with too much in 2014 and have been letting shit slide for a while. Time to take a break. <o:p></o:p><br /><br />*edit* Wildstar - This game suffered from having an open beta. I might have actually gotten to level cap if I hadn't burned out on the leveling before the game even released. Award for making me nauseous even thinking about doing a quest.&nbsp;</div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03734943814412678082noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6156257668190355530.post-30055872210522880402014-12-10T21:25:00.001-08:002014-12-10T21:28:26.769-08:00The Warlords of Draenor Garrison<div class="MsoNormal">I haven’t been very kind about garrisons since they were revealed at Blizzcon last year. My expectation were that it Blizzard was introducing a game within a game, and that the mini game would be required if you wanted to participate in other legacy aspects of WoW.</div><div class="MsoNormal">After playing the game for a month, I can say that my expectations were pretty spot on. Do you like to raid? There’s a building for that. How about PVP? Yep, building for that too. Professions have a building. Every one of them, down to the gathering professions. And yes, naturally you can’t build one of everything, so the player is supposed to tailor their selections based on what perks they want, so that they can compete in the fun aspects of the game.</div><div class="MsoNormal">There is one new element they added to the mix, and that is the missions/followers system. This is the most nefarious piece of the garrison, and one that I thought was fun at first, but have grown to despise. Via questing, dungeons and other activities you recruit followers from out in the world. They can be leveled up, geared up and upgraded so that they can take on missions for better and better rewards. You can get gear for raiding, gold, garrison materials and other stuff.</div><div class="MsoNormal">I’ve maxed out probably about 15 followers and I’m filling out my roster of 25, but after that it seems like this system is intended to dangle gear in front of your nose, so that you slowly and steadily keep leveling them up for better stuff. Same purpose as raids/content, but in a static menu driven, probability adjusted system. This casino is winnable, but the odds are stacked in favor of the house.</div><div class="MsoNormal">My major problem with this minigame is that it’s a distraction that silos players away from each other and the troubling thing is that I think this is probably the smartest thing Blizzard can do. Gamers are caustic, entitled jerks and probably shouldn't be interacted with at all. The garrison is a substitute for doing things in the world traditionally. The garrison is a sterile environment where the developers have absolute control over everything from the economy, to the rate of player progression. They can speed it up and slow it down based on how they feel. It feels dirty to me.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The garrison definitely satisfies the need for the player to log in on a regular basis. I expected it to be a good freemium game, and that expectation seems valid. It’s definitely a tool that takes freedom away from its player base, which to be fair the economy is one aspect that has been taken away by bots and gold farmers for a long time. It’s needed in that fashion I suppose, but Blizzard needs some competition from its own player base.</div><div class="MsoNormal">But why? Why does Blizzard force people into this sterile environment, populated by NPCs and controlled by developer balance? I feel like the entire WoW player base has just been assimilated into the matrix, and their sole purpose is to be a battery in keeping this monstrosity on life support, when I feel like its run its course. I mean, subscriptions I guess.</div><div class="MsoNormal">I’m kinda done with this after a month. The garrison is lame.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The only thing left for me in WoW is to raid with Something Wicked people and play with the friends I’ve made there and to do a little theory crafting where it is needed.&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div>Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03734943814412678082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6156257668190355530.post-71358223246262639932014-04-07T21:47:00.000-07:002014-04-07T21:49:54.177-07:00Siege of Ogrimmar Mix Tape<div class="MsoNormal">Immerseus: <b>The Toadies - I Come From The Water</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="https://ytimg.googleusercontent.com/vi/_9MJZGWmt7A/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/_9MJZGWmt7A&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/_9MJZGWmt7A&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Fallen Protectors: <b>Gotye - Somebody That I Used to Know</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/8UVNT4wvIGY?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0' /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Norushen: <b>Modest Mouse - Fly Trapped in a Jar</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/23RlR-tWjZQ?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0' /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Sha of Pride: <b>Lit – My Own Worst Enemy</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/sc5iTNVEOAg?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0' /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Galakras: <b>Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Two Tribes</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/RTOQUnvI3CA?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0' /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Iron Juggernaut: <b>Metallica - One</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/EzgGTTtR0kc?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0' /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Dark Shaman: <b>Bob Dylan - Shelter from the Storm</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/tZQR-o4nO1E?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0' /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">General Nazgrim: <b>Bright Eyes - Middleman</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/NNkCh394lIw?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0' /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Malkorok: <b>Screamin Jay Hawkins – Spell on You</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/PwXai-sgM-s?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0' /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Spoils of Pandaria: <b>Limp Bizkit – Break Stuff</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZpUYjpKg9KY?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0' /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Thok the Bloodthirsty: <b>Nelly Furtado - Maneater</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/PLolag3YSYU?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0' /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Seigecrafter Blackfuse: – <b>Danny Elfman - The Breakfast Machine</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/gyCDLW7n53A?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0' /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Paragons of the Klaxxi: <b>Harry Bellafonte – Jump In the Line</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/wpNk860pTO4?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0' /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal">Garrosh Hellscream: <b>Kansas - Carry on my Wayward Son</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="https://ytimg.googleusercontent.com/vi/2X_2IdybTV0/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/2X_2IdybTV0&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/2X_2IdybTV0&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03734943814412678082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6156257668190355530.post-60323187492149818362014-03-04T10:52:00.002-08:002014-03-04T10:58:25.317-08:00Things I hate about Warlords of Draenor<div class="MsoNormal"><u><b>1) Gear Randomness</b></u><br />Thunderforged gear was kinda neat, and while Blizzard touted it as an incentive to do 25man raiding, it really was just an excuse to add a little longer tail in order to improve your character power via gear. It gives everyone something else to chase even after all the bosses are dead and we have picked the bodies clean for purples. Warforged gear just pushed this concept out one more tier, and it’s overstayed its welcome. I find it more frustrating than anything.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">The next expansion is going to give gear a chance to be forged (higher item level), have a gem slot (neat), or roll tertiary (crap) stats on gear. Guess which one everyone is going to want? If it’s one thing that will cause drama in this game, loot will.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">To me it’s just a slimy way to extend gameplay, and Activision/Blizzard knows it. If forged gear didn't exist, it wouldn't affect my decision to stay subscribed or not. Forged gear just makes me frustrated when it doesn't drop.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Adding more randomness is not fun. It’s a trap.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst"><br /><u><b>2) Lore Does Not Compute</b></u></div><div class="MsoNormal">So, let me get this straight.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Garrosh Hellscream escapes trial and meets a Timewalker in order to go back in time and stop the Orcs from drinking the blood of Mannoroth, and we have to go back in time/to another dimension to stop this other horde of orcs from invading our world and destroying Azeroth.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Is it just me or does it sound like a Saturday morning cartoon to anyone else?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Whatever, its lore. Mists of Pandaria was farfetched, and now they might as well go off the deep end to keep things silly.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">The Burning Crusade was my favorite version of WoW, and I’m glad we get to go back to Draenor in all its’ outer space goodness. I will be glad that everyone else can enjoy it as much as I did, instead of just hellfire peninsula as a short stop before they get to Northrend. I desperately want to take some newbie into Auchindoun and shake him by the shoulders, “DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH TIME I SPENT HERE WIPING AND LOVED EVERY OTHER SECOND?”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst"><br /><u><b>3) Garrisons</b></u></div><div class="MsoNormal">Oh yay. Another timesink. Hey guess what? If you want to raid, you are probably going to need to do something at your Garrison for a buff, or your bonus loot, or some other hoop people are going to have to jump through.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">That was a little harsh. &nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Something I’m really happy about is how little impact pet battles had in Mists of Pandaria, and I hope that is the pattern that garrisons follows. I get that lots of people play this game for different reasons, and raiding is pretty much the only thing I like to do WoW. I don’t mean to discount other avenues of gameplay, but garrisons seem to be targeted as a single player activity and my garrison does not influence your garrison. To me, it seems like this single player activity shouldn’t bleed through into the world and get people to play with or around others.</div><div class="MsoNormal">I play with other people when I raid. There is required interaction taking place and lots of social cohesion happening.</div><div class="MsoNormal">If my performance as a raider is augmented by what I do with my Garrison, there is no world building happening. I’m not out in the world toiling via daily quests for rep gear, valor points or lesser charms. I’m not going to be adding to the social fabric of the game. All I will be doing is polishing my pixelated home, and dumping gold into it that I could be spending on raid consumables or something more time worthy.&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></div>Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03734943814412678082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6156257668190355530.post-7814885473288421962013-12-31T13:47:00.003-08:002013-12-31T13:49:34.398-08:00Top 10 games of 2013<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><u>1- Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons</u></b></span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b> <br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Probably the most impactful emotional experience and reaction I’ve had with a video game ever. The game is extremely well put together, and is very immersive and beautiful. As you control both characters at the same time, this leads to some fun puzzle solving and is critical in conveying thematic story lessons as well. Being about 6 hours long, I highly recommend this one to anyone; grab it on steam if you can. </span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><u>2- Rogue Legacy</u></b></span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b> <br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">20 goto 10. This game kept me up till wee hours of the morning with “just one more level” Very tight iterative progression and controls. Just a great dungeon diver all around.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><u>3- Something Wicked (World of Warcraft)</u></b></span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b> <br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">World of Warcraft is probably my most played game this year. My monk has been a roller coaster ride between the tiers this expansion, but peters out towards the end. MoP built on lessons learned, so it’s taken about a year to feel like more of the same. Raiding has been impressive all expansion.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><u>4- Zelda: Link Between Worlds</u></b></span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b> <br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was expecting it to be “Link to the Past” HD, but I was pretty surprised at how wrong I was. It’s still some Zelda ass Zelda, but they made some pretty good deviations from the formula to make this game stand out. Being able to choose which tools you want to take on your adventure from the beginning rather than unlocking them linearly was pretty great. The story is also pretty twisty, which is something I like. &nbsp;</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><u>5- The Last of Us</u></b></span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b> <br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I came to this party late, and heard a lot about it. I mean it’s a Naughty Dog game, so going in I knew that there were going to be great set pieces and the gameplay would be engaging. The character development between the protagonists is phenomenal, and I think that Joel is the best character of 2013. He has his flaws, but his heart is in the right place. Just picking nits, but Ellie swears worse than a sailor, and you end up killing more humans than zombies than I would like for a “zombie appocalypse” shooter. Mad props though, that even I was careful with my supplies, crafting and scrounging, I never quite felt safe or over prepared for the enemies in the game, which augmented the story and the atmosphere.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><u>6- Bioshock Infinite</u></b></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The whole universe is weird, and you need to keep playing it just so you can figure out what the hell is going on. The art design is fantastic, and playful. You feel like you are in a very familiar place, even when there are rifts opening in space and time all around you. All the characters play their part well, which is what the game is all about. Songbird though...</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><u>7- Ni No Kuni</u></b></span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b> <br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I haven't played a JRPG in forever, and this is the kind of experience I remember it being. A little Final Fantasy, a little pokemon, and cute as hell. Very punny, and just the right amount of grind. The whole broken hearted people theme was a fun minigame. </span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><u>8- The Swapper</u></b></span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b> <br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gritty and gross, this game’s main mechanic explores some strange morality in terms of “what is a soul?” The puzzles are excellent, and it’s just fun to make lots and lots of clones of yourself to shoot yourself into space. </span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><u>9- Guacamelee</u></b></span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b> <br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another good revival of an older genre, the metroidvania. Just really silly, and the combo system was great to pile drive people into oblivion.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><u>10- Papers Please</u></b></span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b> <br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s a game? I mean, it conveys a really powerful message, but for some reason I play a shift about an hour a day stamping passports. I haven’t finished it yet, so I’m hoping it has some good payoff.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b><br /><u>Honorable Mentions:</u><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b> <div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Super Mario 3D World</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gunpoint</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Card Hunter</span></div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Stanley Parable</span>Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03734943814412678082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6156257668190355530.post-44215133333706744602013-12-10T09:50:00.000-08:002013-12-10T09:51:18.154-08:00Monkbots, Roll Out!<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">Currently, my guild <something wicked=""> is just beginning progression on Garrosh Hellscream and is a mere few weeks away from finishing off the tier, until we begin the long wait for Warlords of Draenor. I am most likely going to be kiting the adds to victory for the kill, so this will be the second progression kill that I will not be playing my main spec (I was Mistweaver for our Lei Shei kill.) As raiding is on the precipice of farm, I want to take a look back where the class has been.</something></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Perception:</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Monks are the second new class added to the game since World of Warcraft launched in 2004. When Blizzard added the Death Knight in 2008, the general perception of the class was that it was overpowered, and it unbalanced the game, for better or for worse. Based on this precedent, I think a lot of players were expecting monks to be given the same treatment: very powerful at the beginning of the expansion, but balanced out as time passed. &nbsp;</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Looking back on the expansion, the monk class has been competitive, but not game breaking in any way like the Death Knights were when they were introduced:</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Windwalker </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">– They have been solid melee DPS every tier and competitive with other classes. Their main drawback has been lack of meaningful raid utility. Blizzard has iterated on the spec for every tier, and has been adding flesh to bone where it was needed. Tier 15 added a cleave to the toolset, and Tier 16 polished talent choices. Our mastery has come a long way from the original Combo Breaker, and now sits in a good place overall, with a crazy rollercoaster detour that was Rune of Reorigination.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mistweaver – </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Conceptually very cool. A healer that can be effective at ranged or in melee, and play very differently in either place. This ultimately did not pan out as well as most people hoped it would. The melee rotation was nerfed for being too simple and too effective, while the bread and butter heals feel out of control and way too automated. The legendary meta gem became far too effective, and ultimately made mana irrelevant. Priests and paladins dominate the whole expansion due to absorbs, as mistweavers shine in Throne of Thunder with impressive throughput.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Brewmaster –</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I think Brewmasters ended up being the most consistently potent throughout the expansion. Shuffle is a very well designed active mitigation system, and the class did a cargo ship’s worth of damage in an expansion where tank damage not only mattered, but was substantial. Monks have lots of personal survivability cooldowns, so they can take a burst beating in addition to being as smooth as butter to heal.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So yea, all in all Monks getting a passing grade in the expansion they debuted in. While this is all well and good, and they are a complete class, why does there still feel like there is something missing? In comparison to the Death Knight, the Monk class did not feel as powerful as Death Knights in the expansion in which they debuted. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Enter the Fist?</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From playing Blizzard games as long as I can remember, their game philosophy has always been “Make everything overpowered” and emphasize “Concentrated Coolness”:</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(</span><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/03/12/rob-pardo-speaks-about-blizzard-game-design/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/03/12/rob-pardo-speaks-about-blizzard-game-design/</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think this is where the Death Knight design philosophy differed from the Monk, and why the Monk feels less complete in comparison. Thematically monks represent balance, incorporating elements of both the yin and the yang, harmonious, subtle, and Zen. I think the introduction of such a serene force into the game is in direct opposition to their design philosophies. The balance that monks represent ultimately works against them as an engaging game element.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Balance is boring, and imbalance is interesting.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Death Knight was wildly popular when it was first introduced, they can be summed up with once simple ability: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Death Grip</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. This ability changed the way the game was played forever, because it was powerful, and introduced a very visceral disruption into the game. Everything about the Death Knight was disruptive and imbalanced, and I think that resonated with a lot of players and injected a very large player base into the class.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I will extend this metaphor a little further, and say that every class in the game has one iconic ability that represents them. Paladins have Divine Shield, Warriors shout, Druids shift, and Shaman have totems. All of these things are awesome, concentrated, powerful.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Monks have….Healing Spheres? Jab? Zen Meditation? ROLL? Please. What’s missing from the monk is that iconic ability that sums up everything about them, and broadcasts that to the player and everyone around them. I will say that the Tea/Brew concept is unique in how well monks can throttle their performance, but it does not stand out enough to attract players to the class.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At least to me, there was never that one ability that stood out from the rest of the classes and was an icon of monks uniqueness. A lot of our abilities are bled and borrowed from other classes so that we fit the paradigm of the more homogenized game we play today in comparison to where the game has come from.</span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s the community, stupid.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Warcraft players can be summed up in one word, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">community</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. That community could be raiders, PVP, RPers, altaholics, transmog fiends, auction house barons, or a million other little niches within the game. The monk community is still nascent and growing as people pick them up and start to play them more and more, whether that be as a main character or an alt they play on a regular basis. While other classes in the game have had a strong, established community that has been building for nearly 10 years.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Where Death Knights exploded onto the scene, Monks came in as a trickle. Monks didnt get that huge player infusion simply monks didnt get that overpowered feeling from the get go (in my opinion) from either a class balance perspective or a lore perspective. I dont think they were front and center for this expansion, and didn’t have that “Turned up to 11” feeling that Death Knights came to the game with. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ultimately, it will take time for the monk community to become as vibrant as any other class community, and that’s not a bad thing. Little by little the bird builds its nest. Nor do I feel like monks have been ignored by the developers, though some specs feel more complete than others. Right now we are absent a central hub to exchange ideas and learn from each other, but that will organically come with time.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A part of me worries that monks won’t become a core part of the game, simply because of the type of player that the class and the game attracts now is different from where the game has come from. As warcraft built momentum, it was a brave new world, and enterprising players learned every nook and cranny, and explored the mechanics of this crazy new game. I feel that the roads have been paved, and the wilds have been tamed, and a more civilized and docile player has came and replace the people who blazed the trails and have since quit the game, or have firmly established their empires within Warcraft. If the monk class and community is to become as vibrant as the others, we need such enterprising souls to come through and establish monks as a force to be joined together.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why did I monk.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have been playing a paladin since Vanilla, and raiding since Burning Crusade. I played the same character for nearly 6 years. I’ve played all three specs in raids, and felt like I had exhausted my ability to learn something new from the class. I quit raiding in Firelands due to real life, and just general frustration with the game.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If Mists of Pandaria had launched without the introduction of a new class, I would have stayed unsubbed. I rolled a monk, because I wanted to learn something new, and explore the game with fresh eyes. The monk represented adding something new and funky into the mix and it held the promise of changing the game paradigm. I will admit that I expected another Death Knight type of disruption into the game with the Monk.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I do feel that my expectations didn’t match reality. The monk didn’t do what I thought it was going to do. Maybe my expectations were misplaced, and I think everyone’s were to a point as well. A lot of windwalkers simply gave up on the class when they realized they were underpowered and brought very little raid utility. I feel like my raid spot was based on the promise of future performance that never really materialized. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While each monk spec performs competently, there is something missing, something that sets us apart, or adds to current game environment. I feel like Blizzard was fighting the last war when they designed us and other classes got better toys. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Monks didn’t change the game like I expected them to. So in the end I am left with a question: Were my expectations too high or unrealistic, or was the introduction of the monk class just a flop? Rhetorically, I think it’s a little of both. </span></div><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span>Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03734943814412678082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6156257668190355530.post-43053915788600519372013-08-07T10:49:00.000-07:002013-08-07T10:49:48.392-07:00My Binging HabitIt's been really bad the last month. I ignore my phone, I sit in my room, and I can't stop. I'll be up till 2, 3, 4 in the morning and I can't control myself and I know I should be sleeping and how tired I am going to be the next morning, but I can't stop. There are people in my life that want to be in touch with me, and it doesn't matter.<div><br /></div><div>The last few weeks I have been binging hard on games in my Steam library that I have been wanting to touch for a while, and it's been a little unhealthy. Rogue Legacy kicked it off and it sucked me in, and I played it till 5 in the morning. Then Dust, and last night System Shock 2. Those hours add up and I get to the end of the tunnel and feel like a lump.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03734943814412678082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6156257668190355530.post-17395990637945191012013-06-21T12:10:00.000-07:002013-06-21T12:10:11.962-07:00Neglected Blog is Neglected.<div class="MsoNormal">I’m a little scared at the moment. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The cost of living is increasing, and seems like most everyone I know is having trouble managing their levels of debt. I’m debating with myself whether my own mother is deserving of a bailout from her family for making some really bad investment choices. From what I can tell, a vast majority of people and organizations have unmanageable debt, and nobody seems to be worried about it. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">My time has become scarce as of late. Employment, working on my house, dating, social obligations, and predesignated scheduled leisure (aka raiding), and working out have left me a little light in the time department. I have friends I want to catch up with, books I want to read, and couches that need sitting on.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Work is becoming more demanding. It’s always, do more with less. I like my job a lot, but I don’t want to be a workaholic like some of my co-workers. What happened to liking your job and not letting it get the best of you; was that false? We hire more people, but the workload never seems to get lighter.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The NSA has been collecting cell phone records, and is probably spying on my activities. No big surprise, but concerning nonetheless. I don’t trust the government, congress or any type organization, and I’m not alone.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">My friends are all disappearing one by one. They are getting married, having children, and moving away. Sometimes they are just going rogue all by themselves and I don’t ever hear from them again.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I’m worried that my house is going to take me down and cost me tons of money. I’m working on it, fixing it, making it better, so that I can own something of value. While it’s nice to have a project to work on, I’m not a career landlord, and its responsibility that I don’t like owning. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I’m not getting any younger. I’m dating someone at the moment and she is really awesome and cool, but I think if I want to have a relationship with her, a long courtship is not going to happen. I've had two very long relationships, and that seems like just a luxury now. If I want to have a family, I feel rushed. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Our generation is one of distraction. We aren't great explorers, fighting wars, baby booming, or fighting for civil rights. We are tweeting, pinning, posting, and instagraming ourselves and existing in worlds that we are building for a population of one. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Am I just living in a world of accelerating acceleration?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal">All of these paradigms are shifting right now and it is kind of freaking me out. The thing that really worries me is that the list of things to worry about is not going to shrink over time. How do I get out of the infinite worry loop? Just stop caring about all things?</div>Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03734943814412678082noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6156257668190355530.post-21577591401376312852013-02-09T20:39:00.000-08:002013-02-09T20:39:53.026-08:00The Value of OilI was listening to an article (wow the future is so rad) the other day about how there is an enormous oil reserve in&nbsp;Ecuador&nbsp;that is underneath a national&nbsp;rain forest&nbsp;preserve.We have seen this movie and heard this plot many times, but what is interesting about reality is that the&nbsp;Ecuadorian&nbsp;government is doing something different.<br /><br />The&nbsp;Ecuadorian&nbsp;government is requesting money from the world in&nbsp;exchange&nbsp;for not opening up the reserve for drilling; they are basically holding their&nbsp;rain forest&nbsp;hostage:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/02/05/171172196/episode-433-holding-a-rainforest-hostage">http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/02/05/171172196/episode-433-holding-a-rainforest-hostage</a><br /><br />but I'm not sure who from.<br /><br />I started thinking about this. Nobody is holding a gun to the heads of the&nbsp;Ecuadorian&nbsp;government and forcing them to tap this oil reserve, oil companies that want to come in and extract the oil would need to pay the&nbsp;government&nbsp;for the ability to do so. Worst case scenario, the oil will stay in the ground until their sovereignty becomes threatened.<br /><br />Ecuador could decide to drill. Obviously that money would be used to benefit the Ecuadorian people, but it has been shown in resource rich countries that very little of that money actually benefits the population at large. Instead the money is lost to corrupt leadership and governments, and revenues&nbsp;benefit&nbsp;the oil companies.<br /><br />This trade off is very unique in my view. On one hand you have a natural resource that is&nbsp;valuable, useful and pretty much&nbsp;essential&nbsp;to the world as we know it. Oil is used to transport things, create things, and gives the world freedom. The other hand is that oil fuels the chaos of our world, enables us to be lazy and ends up polluting the world at each stage in it's life from extraction to consumption to decomposition.<br /><br />I remember listening to another article about how the Native Americans were negotiated with during the civil war, when pioneers ventured west. One of the strategies was offering credit to the Indians for food, guns, and other things that white people had in abundance. When the Native Americans later could not pay their debts, the white settlers took their land instead.<br /><br />The Ecuador situation sounds remarkably like the Native American one. They are faced with the situation of trading money which can be used to buy the things they need (better medicine, better&nbsp;infrastructure, better education) in exchange for something that has undefined value and has&nbsp;significant&nbsp;external benefits to the world.<br /><br />The oil is not going to disappear anytime soon. It can stay in the ground as long as it needs to, and if Ecuador chooses they can choose to extract it. As the article points out, leaving the oil in the ground and leaving the preserve intact has a&nbsp;compounding&nbsp;effect on global climate change; the oil is never burned or consumed, and the rainforest itself absorbs CO2 gasses and produces oxygen for the world.<br /><br />If this boils down to money, I say leave the oil in the ground. It has more value under the ground than in the world's gas tanks.<br /><br /><br /><br />Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03734943814412678082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6156257668190355530.post-51428173372193208812013-01-16T15:20:00.003-08:002013-01-16T15:49:16.724-08:002012: Not a bad year.<br /><div class="MsoNormal">2011 sucked so much.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Anyone that knows me probably knows why. 2011 was a year of self destruction, wallowing, discovery, and martyrdom. I tried new things, but sort of flailing in the dark and trying to find something that stuck. This was true with dating, location, working, and a lot of life. Not a bad thing, but there was no strategy or no tact to which I was doing a lot of things.</div><div class="MsoNormal">This year I decided to start rebuilding myself. My road trip, starting a new career, starting a new relationship, and rebuilding my body were all things that I approached with a plan. I’m proud of everything this year that I accomplished everything I set out to do. This worries me a little, in that I accomplished so much in one year I feel obligated to be even more ambitious about what I expect from myself in the future. I’m also the most introspective than I have ever been in my life, and I’m not sure that’s a good thing.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Getting in shape was definitely the centerpiece of the whole year. In January, I weighed 260lbs and wasn’t especially happy with myself, but then I’ve been overweight for most of my life. I finally decided to do something about it, because despite what people say appearance is very very important. I learned this year, that how you present yourself has the potential to change how you approach each day and how people perceive you. Human are attracted to attractiveness. I weighed in finally at about 205 at the end of 2012, so I dropped about 55lbs.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Losing weight is really easy once you commit to it. You change your diet, increase your physical activity levels and do less of the bad habits that contribute to being overweight. I stopped playing a significant amount of video games, and stopped drinking beer.</div><div class="MsoNormal">I stopped eating ramen, Mac &amp; cheese, and pretty much anything that came out of a box or a freezer this year where these had been staples of my diet for as long as I can remember. Specifically I started losing the most weight when I started thinking of my body as a closed system, and seeing food in a different light. Food has two properties, weight and nutrition; all food weighs something and when you eat it that weight augments your own. Not all food has nutrition however.</div><div class="MsoNormal">I ate less of the food that had less nutrition, while consuming high nutrition foods in sensible quantities. My body follows the law of the conservation of mass and energy. Mass goes into my body, and mass goes out. If I want to eat the bad stuff, just eat a little of it.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The year started out with lots of weights and burpees, and ended the year with not as much weights and a lot more running and rowing. All in all I found a good routine that challenges me and also feels good.</div>Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03734943814412678082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6156257668190355530.post-31609970758809593162012-12-13T12:23:00.001-08:002012-12-13T12:23:47.173-08:00The Post.<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px;">/checks forum</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px;">/forum = "Complete Bullshit"</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px;">/set fucks="0"</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px;">/srspost</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px;">I feel like Furioso. A different raider from a different time. I wanted things to stay the same, while the guild changed and evolved. My Big Crits was a place where I had authority and control and things could be done my way. T10 belonged to me, my 10man belonged to me, Da Crew belonged to me for a short while. I could do or say whatever the fuck I wanted and I had control over where the boat went.&nbsp;</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px;">I came back to raiding and I was not in control anymore. I liked it at first. I could just be anonymous average raider #1937-4. You know how they say it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks? It's even harder to make him unlearn the tricks he already knows. I decided to fight the new way instead of adapt to it.</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px;">OH MY GOD THERE ARE THINGS THAT WE CAN DO BETTER AND I'M THE ONLY ONE THAT SEES THEM WHY CAN'T ANYONE ELSE.&nbsp;</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px;">Important boss ability incoming, and nobody is calling it. I might as well say something. Get hand slapped. Suggest a battle res on a healer/tank 10 seconds after they die. Get called out. Try to help by suggesting a strat in raid chat. Feel ignored. Send a tell to raid leader about how to improve something. You are being ignored. After a while I just felt like I was getting in the way and not ameliorating the situation. The part of my brain that raid leads and things critically about encounters never got turned off and I don't know how to turn it off. It got so bad I&nbsp;</span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16.78333282470703px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">literally&nbsp;</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px;">muted myself for several weeks because I couldn't stop.</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px;">Part of the reason I play this game is because it makes me feel important/useful/smart/endowed whatever. After the first few weeks of heroic progression, I felt worthless. I couldn't stay alive on some encounters. I couldn't be trusted with important assignments. Every night felt like I was that guy holding everyone back during progression.&nbsp;</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px;">Plus there is history with the guild. I was an officer, then I wasn't, then I was kinda, now I'm not. I spent one night after Rash stepped down thinking, "Do I want to stick my dick in this blender and offer to raid lead again? I obviously don't have the self discipline to regulate it, why not?" When I said, I didn't want to be an officer again, that was more me telling myself rather than stating an obvious fact.</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px;">I agree with Sarc. Big Crits does not know how to communicate in raids. People don't know how to filter the bullshit, and add constructive input on a boss. I don't know whether I contributed to or mitigated that situation. I'm guessing I just added to the pile. It seems like trivial stuff boils to the surface, and important things fall through the cracks (calling for cooldowns, stormlashes, battle reses, boss gotchas, Hey my thing that I need is on cooldown halp pls)</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px;">The era of Stoney where we had very top down style leadership is what I know, and Sarc/Jurr/Sarc is a more nuanced self regulating style of leadership where I feel like I piss more people off than have friends.</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px;">I'm sorry to everyone for how I left but the bandaid needed to come off, and especially the officers and Rash had to put up with my bullshit in raids and on the forums. I probably roused more rabble than anyone and am not proud of it. You guys are all still my friends.</span></span>Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03734943814412678082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6156257668190355530.post-56401635000039985492012-12-06T09:57:00.000-08:002012-12-06T09:57:05.115-08:00Being Sat.This week Big Crits killed the server first Will of the Emperor. I was on the bench.<br /><br />I'm glad that we killed it. I'm mad that I was sitting out for the kill, and I should have been in. I was in for most of the progression for this boss, healing as my offspec. We picked up some recruit healers this week, and I was set to go to kill the boss this week as my main spec.<br /><br />First night of progression this week, I was having computer issues, so I sat while I put the finishing touches on my new computer. My hard drives got partitioned really weird when I set them up, so while merging them together the boot record got corrupted, so I had to&nbsp;re-install&nbsp;Windows again. I was irked that I couldnt get in on the boss attempts and listening to mumble of people making mistakes over and over and everyone getting frustrated. I wanted to be there.<br /><br />Last night was the night that Big Crits killed it, and I wasn't raiding. I was sitting on the bench. I was ready to raid at the beginning of the night, when I had to do one last restart to get Mumble working, which took 10 minutes because Windows update decided to restart my computer 5 times to do more updating. All said and done, when I logged back in it was 5 after raid time, and I was on the bench. Fuck me, but oh well we have baddies and&nbsp;initiates&nbsp;that will probably be subbed at some point.<br /><br />Nope.<br /><br />Oh one of the warlocks lost internet, and we need a sub. Goodie, I'll just wait to be pulled in.<br /><br />10 minutes pass.<br /><br />I say audibly on Mumble "Hey guys, I'm on the bench and I can come in right now"<br /><br />"Hey&nbsp;initiate&nbsp;rogue, we are pulling you in for this boss"<br /><br />Fucking seriously? Are you LITERALLY kidding me right now?<br /><br />I shouldn't have stayed silent for that long. I should have said, right away, "Bring me in. Now." There were 5 initiates in for the kill last night, and being sat for raiders. I shouldn't be thinking about it this much but I am.<br /><br />Was I being sat because of my skill as a player, because of my class, or is it as simple as me not being vocal and visible enough to get pulled into the raid? Now I'm just frustrated and questioning my place in the guild again, which I thought I had proven my skills and abilities to be a raider in. What more do I have to do?<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03734943814412678082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6156257668190355530.post-57501510265288637202012-10-01T09:50:00.002-07:002012-10-01T09:50:34.740-07:00Quarter 4 ReportToo many thoughts happening all at once, need to get them down on paper.<br /><br /><u>Fitness:</u><br /><u><br /></u>I've been taking a break the last few weeks to let my body heal up before I hit it hard again. I took an arrow to the knee in August, and last month I had a piece of bone break off inside my foot which &nbsp;has made working out challenging. I get activity where I can, but I miss running a lot, and I don't want to backslide and have to make up for lost time.<br /><br />Not being able to work out is&nbsp;actually&nbsp;physically frustrating, because I want to meet my new years resolution, and keep losing weight into next year. My diet has changed dramatically, and I've fallen in love with carrots as a snack. This is helping immensely. I'm still eating things that I love, just not as many of them, and I hope to add beer back into my diet sparingly next year granted I'm meeting my goals. Not just any beer though, GOOD beer; small batch craft beers ideally. Maybe start brewing again at some point.<br /><br />Even with the downtime, I'm still losing weight. I clocked in at 215 yesterday which is pretty fucking fabulous considering everything. I'm hoping not too much of that is muscle loss. Getting back to the gym is going to be disappointing when I can't lift as much, but c'est la vie.<br /><br /><u>Back on the needle:</u><br /><br />Yea.<br /><br />Playing WoW again, and having a fucking blast.<br /><br />I came back to Big Crits about a month ago when I knew that I wanted to give raiding another shot. I rerolled a completely new character, and cutting ties with the one I have been playing for 6+ years. If raiding ends up completely garbage, it will be easier to break away with a character I have less inertia with. It's also refreshing to rediscover parts of the game that I had taken for granted with the old. No way in hell I'm going to be farming for old gear though. The vanity part of the game is dumb.<br /><br />Right now there is lots of energy in the guild, and hopes are high. Tier 14 starts next week, and we are all ready to hit it as hard as we can, going for server firsts and the like. I'm trying to balance this better with the other areas of my life now. It's already taking it's toll on my time getting prepared for the first week of raiding with all the dungeon grinding we have been doing. I'm a little behind with gear compared to other people, but I'm not worried about it. <br /><br />I'm playing the game on my terms. I'm not going to be dumping more time into the game than I need to in order to meet the standards of the raiding team in terms of gearing up. All the gear I have will end up being replaced in raids and with rep rewards anyways. I've ran about 20 heroic dungeons, but the gear I want just refuses to drop. I'll just make do with what I have. I'm confident in my skill to be an excellent raider, and skill trumps gear any day all day. I have better things to do with my time anyways...<br /><br /><u>Relationships?</u><br /><u><br /></u>I have a&nbsp;girlfriend. I'm terrified.<br /><br />This probably deserves a post all by itself, but fuck it. I'm laying out all my fears for the internet to behold.<br /><br />She lives in Peru. We text everyday, and&nbsp;Skype&nbsp;almost every day. We have been officially dating for about 3-4 months. I feel like she is strong in all the things I am not, and vice versa. She visited last July and we were all over&nbsp;each other. We miss each other a lot, and we are both hoping that she can move to the USA when she finishes school, and we can pursue...whatever this is...<br /><br />I'm fairly sure that she is in love with me, and I don't reciprocate at the moment. I'm literally a chicken shit and I don't know how to deal with it. I'm this tempest in a teacup right now figuring out if this is what I want. Is this how Erin felt during our relationship?<br /><br />The questions are simple though.<br /><br />Do I want to be in a relationship with someone: Yes<br />Do I want to be in a relationship with Ale: Yes<br />Do I see myself in the future with someone (kids, marriage, soccer practice yadda yadda): Yes<br />Do I see a future with Ale: Yes<br /><br />Am I in love? Simple answer, no. Not the head over heels, infatuation love that people do anything and everything to keep and hold. I've been there, it was nice. Ultimately I got burned the hardest I've ever been in my life, and THAT is what scares me. The horrible&nbsp;fiery&nbsp;crash.&nbsp;Right now my brain can't stop seeing the mangled bodies left after the relationship fails, and my heart is hardened from wanting to be alone. Basically I'm a fucking wreck.<br /><br />I'm afraid of failure. It's something that has always been with me.<br /><br />I need more time. I need to turn my brain off. I need to sit on that boxcar at the top of the hill and just let the detritus come.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03734943814412678082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6156257668190355530.post-34823865621907251562012-07-17T20:42:00.001-07:002012-07-17T20:43:30.622-07:00Statistics and being "Normal".Normal. It's a word that we all seem to have a love/hate relationship with. Everyone wishes they were more normal, while also wanting to be unique.<br /><br />I've been meaning to post this for a while, because it's one of my more abstract thoughts. That, and it involves statistics.<br /><br />I think most people recognize this:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/math/immath/gauds.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" src="http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/math/immath/gauds.gif" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This is the normal distribution curve. The theory goes that this is the natural distribution of probability of observations made in nature. The average, or the norm, is right in the middle and typically has the highest chance of&nbsp;occurring. As you move away from the normal on either side, the&nbsp;probability&nbsp;goes down sharply.&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">See those little numbers on the bottom? Those represent&nbsp;standard&nbsp;deviations. The standard deviation shows how much variation or"dispersion" exists from the average value. The normal standard deviation represents ~68% of the total values in the total sample size.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So, let's apply this theory to people. Look at the above curve and say we apply it to how attractive a person is on a scale of 1-10. So the norm would be a 5, the far right side would be a 10, and the far left would be a 1. If you picked 100 people at random, on average they would rate a 5 for&nbsp;attractiveness and 68% of the people would rate between a 2.6 and a 7.4. So if you were a normal person, you would be a 5.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Now, let's look at this graph in two dimensions:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ssip2003.info.uvt.ro/projects/teamE/abstract_files/image006.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="205" src="http://ssip2003.info.uvt.ro/projects/teamE/abstract_files/image006.gif" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So, here we are grouping observations in two dimensions. Let's take our attractiveness observation (x) from earlier and add a new independent dimension,&nbsp;intelligence (y). Just by looking at the graph, that most people are middle of the road attractive and&nbsp;intelligent. Compared to entire graph, people that are super smart and super hot (-4,-4) would be in the extreme minority, while most people would fall into the standard deviation range.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">From here we can extrapolate and add as many independent dimensions as we want to measure people by: ethnicity, age, favorite color, whatever...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">You end up with a hypergraph measuring all these things at the same time and defining the&nbsp;truly&nbsp;normal person: middle of the road in every&nbsp;imaginable&nbsp;aspect. This person is normally attractive,&nbsp;intelligent, average interests,&nbsp;average&nbsp;everything. This "normal" person isn't really remarkable in any way, and that's my point. They don't stand out, they aren't unique even in the slightest way. Why do we compare ourselves, and in some cases aspire to be this normal person? What does this measurement provide?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As far as I can understand, the normal yardstick is great so that we can measure ourselves against <b>something.</b>&nbsp;We imagine normal people but this person isn't average, they are usually better than average. If normal is 5, we envision someone maybe 7 or 8 to be the normal. Not perfect, but not a&nbsp;dirt-bag&nbsp;either. This may be a way to encourage ourselves to be better than average, to aspire not to perfection, but to be the 7 or 8 that feels like a great compromise between average and perfect.</div>Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03734943814412678082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6156257668190355530.post-43548147776967449492012-07-03T21:19:00.000-07:002012-07-03T21:19:12.762-07:00231.The year is half over. As Chris Farley would say, "HOLY SHNYKIES", henceforth it's time to check in.<br /><br />I started this crazy notion at the beginning of the year to invest in myself. One of the things I wanted to do was get in a better physical condition, something that would be completely selfish. It's been a great transformation. I have accomplished some of the goals I set for myself, and I feel really proud of the work I have done.<br /><br /><u>The good:</u><br /><br />-Lost about 30lbs so far. Well on track to lose all 50 by years end, so I'm going to work hard to meet and beat that goal.<br /><br />-Inches and shape. My body looks much better than it ever has. I'm going to need to start buying new clothes soon that fit me better. Wh-oot.<br /><br />-Nutrition. It was rough at first to get on a good&nbsp;nutrition&nbsp;schedule but I've found one that works for me, and it's not some fucking stupid all&nbsp;protein, or powersauce&nbsp;fad crap. I'm eating better because I want to for the long run. I still want to be able to eat delicious food, but just not a lot of it. This is the problem with American diets: portion control. Right now I am eating smaller meals, more frequently, and teaching my body to survive on smaller meals. This might sound sort of gross, but I noticed my success was working when I was taking smaller poops. Deal with it.<br /><br />My job: This isn't an investment in me per se, but I think I have landed a whale of a job. Me gusta.<br /><br />Spanish: So, I'm learning Spanish now as well and it's keeping me away from video games. I have a lovely lady helping me learn too, and she is really excited that I am getting good at it.<br /><br /><u>The not so good:</u><br /><br />Self Esteem: I think this one will be one of those things that I may not have the strength to change. I feel great about myself, really I do. I am generally a badass. The thing I lack is that alpha attitude, and I guess that is just something that you are born with; I don't feel the need to impose my will over anyone else, but instead I like to absorb the worlds contradictions and&nbsp;idiosyncrasies. I'm&nbsp;definitely&nbsp;more confident tho. Props.<br /><br />Women: This is a blog post in itself, but tldr, women have fucked up. You are all walking contradictions, but it's not your fault. You ladies are this big bag of emotions, with no rhyme or reason why you do things, and then you whine and complain later when you didn't get what you want. It's not your fault, you were just drawn that way. I need to figure out how to deal with you. It goes both ways I suppose.<br /><br />Beer: HOLY FUCKING TEABAGGING CHRIST BEER, I MISS YOU SO MUCH. SHOON.<br /><br />Has the investment paid off? Fuck if I know. Too soon to tell if anything. I may never know. Opportunity cost is a tricky thing to measure, especially when you are trying to measure your life.Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03734943814412678082noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6156257668190355530.post-10135271029829428152012-06-24T21:10:00.003-07:002012-06-24T21:14:35.339-07:00Putting it out there.I resubbed to Match for the summer. Best time to date, and I could really use some exposure to the world outside the electric grid. It's also been a while since I have stepped back and defined what I want from whomever I'm sharing a cup of coffee or whatever with.<br /><br />At first I just wanted to be just as goofy and funny as possible trying to shed light on how stupid the whole online daitng thing is, but then I realized that nobody was responding to my finely crafted sonnets of love.<br /><br />Here is the post I wrote to sum me up. I think I nailed it.<br /><br /><b id="internal-source-marker_0.9095395398326218"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m looking for someone, maybe they are on the internet. Some of the most interesting people, and some of my best friends are there...</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At this point in my life, I have been through a lot, and I have grown incredibly as a person; tragically not nearly enough. No matter what you accomplish, own, or do in life, the struggle is the parts that count. To quote the Barenaked Ladies, “Everything easy has its cost.” I know that I will always be struggling, seldom taking the easy road, and I want to find that person that wants do things not because they are easy, but because they are interesting.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I love a girl who can always be herself, no matter what is going on around her. Being yourself is sometimes rough, but at the end of the day, you can’t be anything else. Be honest with yourself, and I will return the favor. Talk, and I will listen. Teach me something, and I will show you my own weird world. Laugh with me, and I will keep the humor on tap. I’m a complete person by myself, but I want something more than that; I want to build something incredible, even if it only exists between two people.</span></b><br /><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b><br />Ultimately, I don't think it matters what I say or don't say in my profile; just paint a picture of what I feel and those who read it will fill in the gaps with their own paintbrush. It's not about what you say, but what you don't say.Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03734943814412678082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6156257668190355530.post-82155307164728457942012-06-19T16:14:00.001-07:002012-06-19T16:14:17.849-07:00Diablo 3 Love/HateDiablo 3 is a great game, but I have a love hate relationship with it right now. I love what it is, and I hate what it is trying to be. <br /><br />I hold this game very near and dear to my heart. I probably dumped a whole summer into the original game. At the time, dungeon crawlers were pretty disposable. Once you ran through them once and got all the loot, you were done; replaying the dungeon was the same thing no matter how many times you played it. Diablo introduced random dungeon layouts and random loot, something that had never been done at that scale and production quality before. <br /><br />I cut my teeth on an old Net.Hack clone called Mission Thunderbolt back for the Mac. Every playthough was different, and the turn based combat was visceral, literally beating things to death. It was the random element that kept me playing, and I still boot it up once in a while.<br /><br />At it's core, Diablo is a slot machine; it introduces random intermittent rewards (loot)&nbsp;for a defined input (killing monsters). In order to progress, you must play the game better or get better loot in order to be more effective against harder monsters, which drop better loot. It's the most elegant gear treadmill ever designed. This is why I love the game, you can choose your own level of difficulty and involvement. The harder you push against the game, the harder it pushes back, and it's internal random number generator gives you the rewards your rat brain wants. <br /><br />This is what made Diablo 1 and Diablo 2 so addicting. The intermittent reward model has been shown to be the most addictive behavior for our brains to keep doing the same task.<br /><br />The new Diablo model is a little different. Now you not only have your own instance of the random number generator (I'm just going to call it&nbsp;a RRG - a&nbsp;Random&nbsp;Reward Generator)&nbsp;giving you loot, but you have an auction house linking your RRG to everyone elses RRG. This basically neuters the reward system that we have known and loved, and replaces it with a market based reward system.<br /><br />The reward system in Diablo 3 is also very unforgiving. You have to kill a LOT of monsters to get loot that improves your potency against the game. The random bonuses on loot are poluted with garbage stats (gold pickup radius, health globe bonus), not to mention class specific gear and the fact that most classes want stats on gear that is dramatically different from the other classes. Playing the probability game, a lot of dice rolls need to come up in your favor to get loot with the most effective stats. In essence, the odds are stacked in the house's favor. <br /><br />This is where the new Diablo breaks down for me. Now you can see the guts of the machine. You can see the beautiful shiny items on the auction house, and how vastly inferior your own gear is. You now have the option of spending your time farming gold to&nbsp;buy the good itemized gear on the AH, or you can drop some real life coin and go that route as well; the third option is jumping on that gear treadmill and&nbsp;playing against the house for gear that has useful itemization (I swear to god the next&nbsp;monk only fist weapon that has +Str and +Int on it,&nbsp;I'm going to go kill some kittens).<br /><br />Diablo 3 is a pay or play game like League of Legends or any free to play MMO out there. They gave it away for free to the hopelessly addicted WoW people, and sold it to the nostalgic Blizzard gamers that love them so much. I heard an analogy that Blizzard is the Disney of the video game industry, where they just iterate on their previous successes. Blizzard's plan is to make money on the tail of the real money AH, where "game balances" will drive the economy and shift people into different item budgets. <br /><br />The pay/play model is killing me. This seems to be the way of the future, where monetization gets sneakier and sneakier all the time. Externalizing costs has always been the way to make a profit and make money in business, and it has finally come to video games; to me, this business model finds the stupid people who will pour money into time savers and "cheats" to make their own game experience better. I know this has been around for a while with downloadable content, but I think we are just now seeing the consequences. Smart people play with skill, and stupid people play with their dollars. I think this kind of model will see developers and game designers chasing the time savers and cheaters, instead of the smarter people who can play within the bounds of the game. Games will get stupider and will start to resemble actual slot machines more and more, or even the old arcade games of old.<br /><br />I'm still playing the game, but only to see how far I can take my hardcore toon. Once he dies, I think I am done. I rolled a WD at launch, and I can only see grind in my future since I have reached inferno. I'll try to hock all my gear on the real money AH and see if I can make a little scratch. <br /><br />Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03734943814412678082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6156257668190355530.post-7564993865748109192012-06-03T15:57:00.000-07:002012-06-03T16:17:16.445-07:00Thou Mayest.I'm really glad that Carissa gave me 'East of Eden' to read. It's giving me the inspiration to get my shit together again and come out of the hole I have been hiding in for the last couple years. Well, at least it's adding a positive voice to my internal struggle.<br /><br />One of the characters is mirroring one of my own personal struggle. Wandering aimlessly, finding a girl whom he loves blindly, getting that love shot out of him by the one who put it there, and then the struggle to get back on his feet and keep trying. One of the themes of the book is struggle. If you aren't fighting and struggling for things you care about, then you are wasting life.It's the uphill struggle that makes you great. It's fighting every battle because it matters, and a body at rest remains at an unhappy rest. This is a lesson I am now learning, after wasting a lot of my time avoiding the world and all it's pointless struggles. In the end, the struggle only really needs to matter to one person.<br /><br />The last 6 months I have been hiding myself behind armor. It's been a polar shift. I've been seeing women as evil creatures intent on stealing men's souls. I'll always feel slightly afraid of women, because men will always desire them and lose their minds in the presence of da ladies. I still feel that culturally, the balance of power between genders is fluid. Men and women want different things, and the reconciliation between those two has made for an interesting time. Men push boundaries and poke and prod the world around them trying to create and solve new problems, while women seek balance and common understanding while building communities and ammeliorating the chaos around them.<br /><br />I do feel that American society has produced a culture of princesses who see men for their kingdoms, just like men see women for their physical features and their sex; neither genders sees much past that and looks for inner beauty, which is tragic to me. That's just me being weird though. It almost makes sense that as long as you can present yourself to the opposite gender what they are seeking. Women are on a constant quest to be as beautiful as they can, while guys pour themselves into their career and making a good living. This is the way the world works, and I am just now figuring it out. It's fun to think about.<br /><br />What this means to me, is that it's time to stop moping and keep searching for someone to have in my life, no matter how fruitless the battle or the journey. This lesson holds even after I find a girlfriend or whatever, never stop fighting for yourself. <br /><br />This doesn't mean I have to give up something else in my life to start down this road. On the contrary: I need to keep shoving more stuff into my life until nothing else fits. If I have free time, I will find something to do. Working out, running, reading, writing, things that are tangible and have value. Sitting around all weekend playing a video game just won't cut it anymore.<br /><br />Speaking of futile struggles, I might just go make a match profile and see what bites.Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03734943814412678082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6156257668190355530.post-47145259593575737752012-05-09T09:49:00.002-07:002012-05-09T09:54:45.015-07:00Show, Don't Tell.I've always loathed advertizing. It's an omnipresent thing in the world we live in. It's like a nagging child, always struggling to get your attention; never relenting and always needing your mental bandwidth. I can't even count the avenues that the marketing pros have developed to tell you about the latest thing they want you to buy. I mean, it serves a purpose right, other that to convince people that they need stuff, right? I guess...<br /><br />Anyways, I think I have figured out what makes advertizing, storytelling, and communication in general very effective. There is an old adage that I have always thought of as underrated: "Show, Don't Tell". I never realized how important it was until I was watching a car commercial. Irony is awesome.<br /><br />I have an idea that I want to share, let's see if I can pull it off... <br /><br />It was the end of the day. I was weary and worn down by computer simulations, phone calls, emails, and just general work shenanigans. Caught the shuttle over to the repair shop, and my car was getting a wash when I got there so I had a few minutes to kill. I grabbed a cup of coffee from the waiting room as I stared blankly at an old episode of Friends that was playing out. Something about getting ready for Chandler and Monica's wedding. The commercial came on, and it was a nice looking Audi driving down the street. The driver had a smug smile on his face as he was driving down the shady neighborhood street. All of a sudden, a child started running in front of the car. The driver reacted quickly and braked and avoided the child. I didn't even realize it, but I breathed a sigh of relief.<br /><br />So what happened there? I tried to do to you, what the car commercial did to me. I wanted to invite you into my world, and have you there with me seeing feeling what I felt, and seeing what I saw. I wanted to bring you into my experience, and show you, not tell you, what I saw.<br /><br />I could have just said, "Hey, anti-lock brakes are really awesome and could save some kid's life". That doesnt&nbsp;really communicate&nbsp;anything though, it doesn't engage you and just falls flat. It just tells you what you already know.<br /><br />The commercial showed me the advantages of the newest driving and braking technologies. It didn't spout off technical specs, babble or flashed words on the screen. It pulled me in and engaged my imagination and emotions. In that small time period, the small Audi story became a living moment that I shared with "it". That is the power of showing instead of telling, not only do you engage someone else into the story you want to tell, you allow someone else to share in the creation of that world.<br /><br />Great storytellers can create such vivid worlds that their listeners/readers/viewers become engrossed and actually start to fill in the gaps with their own ideas and creating a world they want to see. This is the power of showing. I felt emotionally connected with the driver, because I was adding some of my own paint to the picture; applying what I saw to who I was.<br /><br />Showing takes time, care, skill and practice; not everyone is going to get it, but those that do will have a much stronger connection with your story and your idea. Let your audience connect the dots, and don't spell everything out for them. Leave them clues that they will feel something about connecting.Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03734943814412678082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6156257668190355530.post-43079464778256857542012-05-08T22:48:00.003-07:002012-05-08T22:48:52.555-07:00Hardcores n' CasualsI posted this in my guild forums because we were having a sissyfight between the Raiders and the Causals. Seems to hold up pretty well in general to the WoW community. For what it's worth...some strong language ahead:<br style="background-color: #f9f9f6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: #f9f9f6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: #f9f9f6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Hey Hardcores,</span><br style="background-color: #f9f9f6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: #f9f9f6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: #f9f9f6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">You guys are terrible at this game. Whoopty fucking doo, you cleared a nerfed instance. Grats to you. If I was handed a nerfed kill, I would just fucking kill myself cause there is no glory in it. Be the best at this game, and then you can act high and mighty towards everyone else. Back in my day we did Heroic Halion uphill both ways in the snow. Spine is pussy shit. "Back in my day" everyone gave group hugs and handskies before AND after raids, and we still killed progression content. Nostlagia is awesome and all, but right now, some of you come across as dicks. If you want everyone in the community to see you in that light, I guess that's cool. Hardcore raiders that don't want to be seen in that light might want to do something about it. I mean, some of you probably don't have much going on in your lives, and you can live on the internet posting image macros without having one original thought going through your head. I've played with better people, who actually have interesting lives, and who are better at the game than some of you. Some of them are Casuals.</span><br style="background-color: #f9f9f6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: #f9f9f6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: #f9f9f6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Hey Casuals,</span><br style="background-color: #f9f9f6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: #f9f9f6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: #f9f9f6; color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Put your adult pants on. Seriously quit getting hurt in your vaginas, and play the game with the rest of us. We are a raiding community. We raid. I know some of you think that this is ultra mega happy hello kitty fun hour, but some of us play this game to have fun and to master something we love. It upsets some people that you think you deserve the same rewards and the same fun for putting less of yourself into the game for it. For you to think that you are on the same level as those people is retarded. Go ahead, whine about it. As you whine more, I give a shit less. Do what the hardcore raiders did and solve your problems on your own without crying about it. Do you play this game because it is a sanctuary where you can feel awesome and important, just to bitch and moan about how horrible other people are making your lives? I really doubt anyone is actually out to get you personally. Actually, I am sure of it. Don't be a martyr.</span>Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03734943814412678082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6156257668190355530.post-50433140156820981342012-05-05T15:59:00.001-07:002012-05-08T18:19:33.276-07:00Shiftin' Liftin'So, I've been hitting the gym hard since I broke up with my trainer. I've gotten back to lifting after doing rabbit food workouts with the dude. I incorporated a couple new exercises into my routine, working out my "core". I'm not sure exactly why core workouts are so awesome and great for you, but I am pretty sure they don't hurt.<br /><br />Here is my current workout routine:<br /><br /><u>Even workouts:</u><br /><br />-Woodchoppers<br />-Renegade Row<br />-Barbell Squat<br />-Shoulder Barbell Press<br />-Power Clean<br />-Mountain Climbers/One Foot Toe Touches in between sets. <br />-Crunches<br />-Cardio<br /><br /><u>Odd Workouts:</u><br /><br />-Hyperextension<br />-Hanging Knee Raise<br />-Barbell Squat<br />-Bench Press<br />-Barbell Deadlift<br />-Mountain Climbers/One Foot Toe Touches in between sets. <br />-Crunches<br />-Cardio<br /><br />Until this week, I had been doing sets of 8 on my barbell lifts. I would rather not become a muscle bound dude. I want to be strong, but not inflated. So, I am taking my sets of 8 and moving them up to sets of 12 and shaving about 20lbs off. This week felt pretty good with the new routines. My muscles are a little more sore, and my heart rate stays up during the sets, which I'm hoping will aid a little more in weight loss.<br /><br />I'm aiming to lose weight ultimately, but not for the sake of just weight loss. I want to get stronger, run faster, and have more endurance. So far, I haven't lost much weight in terms of just the scale. It's a little disappointing, but I can feel healthier regardless of what the scale says. My clothes fit better; in particular I own a pair of pants with a button snap which used to come undone ALL THE TIME. I'm wearing them right now, and I haven't had to rebutton them in a couple weeks, even when not wearing a belt. So go me.<br /><br />The weight loss will come, but at not at the expense of getting stronger. My diet is still on the heavy side, and that will need some work before the pounds really start coming off. My diet isn't even bad per se. I'm not drinking soda, not eating a lot of fatty foods, not over indulging in carbs and the like. I even cut beer and alcohol out for the most part. I will have one beer/drink per week and even then only with friends. I'm cooking almost all my own meals and making them as healthy as possible. The next step is to start logging all of my meals and take stock of what is going into my body. I'm not ready to do this yet though. I'm still focused on the exercise part. <br /><br /><u>Goals</u>:<br /><br />Log food intake.<br />Take more pictures for progress.<br />Get a tape measure to track progress.Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03734943814412678082noreply@blogger.com0